If you have a pending criminal matter don’t be stupid

This seems like pretty easy advice to follow, don’t you think? If you have a pending criminal matter don’t do anything stupid. However sometimes people don’t follow that advice and find themselves in a worse off position. The latest example of this is NFL superstar Adrian Peterson. In case you don’t follow the NFL or know who Adrian Peterson is here is what happened.

At the beginning of the football season this year allegation came out that Adrian Peterson beat his son with a branch or “switch.” Apparently the beating was severe enough that is left some substantial marks on the child’s body. This came to the attention of the authorities and eventually Mr. Peterson was indicated on child abuse charges.

Once he was charged conditions of his release included posting $15k bond, staying out of trouble, and abstaining from illegal substances. Well as a condition of his pretrial release he had to submit to court ordered drug testing. Now I assume Mr. Peterson was aware of these conditions. He most likely was informed in Court by the Judge what he had to following while the case is pending. He probably signed a release order indicating the conditions he had to follow. And his lawyer probably told him. Well long story short. Mr. Peterson appears to have violated his conditions of release by smoking marijuana and telling the Court employee handling the urinalysis test that he “smoked a little weed.” So what happens next?

Most likely the Prosecutor will move to revoke the bond that was posted, and either increase it or add additional conditions to the release order. Perhaps some form of home detention, or additional drug testing. Either way that was probably not the best way to start off the case and I’m sure his defense attorney is not to happy. Especially when what he did was completely avoidable. Regardless of whether the condition was stupid or not, or regardless of whether it was just marijuana. It was a court order and he needed to follow it.

So why am I writing about this in my DUI blog. Every DUI case here in King County has similar conditions set as the ones Adrian Peterson had imposed. They may not involve drug testing but sometimes there is ignition interlock requirements, or abstain conditions, or even SCRAM bracelet conditions. The point it while you have a pending DUI in King County or anywhere really please don’t do anything stupid do jeopardize the pending case. Under no conditions should you drink and drive, use marijuana and drive, or continue to drink especially if there is a court ordered abstain condition.

Just some free advice from a DUI Attorney in Seattle. Take it for what it’s worth. But in my opinion it is completely not worth it especially over something so trivial like smoking “a little weed” as Adrian Peterson did.

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About the author: Matthew Leyba is a DUI Attorney in Bellevue, WA. He has been named as one of Seattle’s best DUI Lawyers by the Seattle Met Magazine. He is also rated a perfect 10 out of 10 by Avvo.com, a lawyer rating service.

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